Editorial | CARICOM and plastics

With last week’s collapse in Geneva of the UN-promoted negotiations for a treaty on plastics, Caribbean countries must now deepen coordination and accelerate their own efforts to manage the production of, and waste from, the material.

As part of this move, the region must adjust its narrative around plastics, from a focus almost solely as a problem of waste, to include the fact that plastics are also a critical issue in the fight against global warming and climate change, which pose existential threats to the mostly small island and vulnerable coastal states of the Caribbean. In other words, stakeholders have to fully grasp that plastics are products of petrochemicals, whose greenhouse gases help make Earth hotter, causing sea levels to rise and weather events more severe and unpredictable.

In that regard, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), of which Jamaica is a member, should quickly advance the harmonisation of policies and protocols on plastics in the community, and at the same time invite its neighbours to be part of the initiative. At the global level, the region should firmly align with those countries seeking binding agreements on the production of plastics and the generation of plastic waste, as well as expand shared platforms with regions with similar vulnerabilities.

The world produces over 400 million metric tonnes of new plastics annually. According to experts, should the current trajectory continue, this could be about 70 per cent, or around 280 million tonnes by 2040.

HUNDREDS OF YEARS

It takes hundreds of years for most plastics to degrade. Yet, only nine per cent of the over 350 million tonnes of plastic waste produced each year is recycled. Some are incinerated for energy. Most of the rest are disposed of in landfills or end up in drains, rivers or streams, to find their way, ultimately, into the world’s oceans, polluting the marine environment and harming sea life. Micro particles are ingested by fish and other marine species, potentially finding their way into the human food chain.

The Caribbean, with its limited capacity to recycle, has a real interest in global action to reduce production and better manage the use and disposal of the stuff.

In Jamaica – where an estimated 15 per cent of the island’s 800 tonnes of solid waste is plastics – companies whose businesses are heavily reliant on plastics run, with some success, a money-back recycling initiative.

Jamaica, as have some other CARICOM countries, has also banned small-sized, single-use polyethylene and polypropylene plastic bags used in shopping, as well as single-use plastic straws and Styrofoam food and beverage containers. This ban was to have expanded last month to include products containing added microbeads and microplastics. However, plastic waste still clogs the drains and gullies and rivers, contributing to floods during rains, and the damage of mangroves that protect coastlines and act as spawning grounds for some species of fish.

Further, in a region that is highly dependent on tourism, and which promotes its beaches as prime attractions, their erosion by rising seas, fuelled substantially by the oil and petrochemicals sectors, the nexus between the production, plastics, plastic waste, global warming and the region’s economic wellbeing is apparent.

INSUFFICIENT

It is obvious, too, that existing measures are insufficient to address a problem that is of global proportions. Plastic waste, once it reaches the oceans, doesn’t respect maritime borders or exclusive economic zones (EEZs), or the resources therein.

This was part of the backdrop against which the UN promoted efforts towards the global agreement on plastics, which fell apart last week because of a lack of consensus of what such a treaty should look like and how enforceable it should be.

At one end of the spectrum are the countries that are insisting on binding caps for the production of plastics; bankable restrictions on the use of certain toxins in the production of the material; as well as measures across the lifecycle of plastic products to reduce the creation of waste. Their measures are predicated on a 40 per cent reduction of plastics by 2040.

Others, mainly oil producers and the United States, pushed for a looser agreement that favours voluntary measures rather than binding commitments on a wide range of issues. Attempts at compromise sparked further divisions, even among like-minded groups.

The Caribbean can’t wait until the world finds consensus on the matter. The region should, therefore, expand and harmonise existing initiatives like those involving refundable despite-return schemes for all categories of beverage containers, as well as coordinate on producer responsibility schemes, including, possibly, the introduction of performance bonds and regulatory systems to address product design, recyclability and toxicity.

The Caribbean should also deepen collaboration on maritime and tourism regulations to ensure regional tourism interests abide by procurement regimes on plastic products and how vessels operating in Caribbean waters, including tourist ships, manage their waste.